Skillet Pizza with Broccoli Rabe, Sausage and Roasted Peppers

One of the downsides of moving is you lose things. Over the past 10 years we have moved between 4 countries and items have disappeared. I don’t just mean little things, either. My daughter asked me one day where her painted toy chest was. Painted toy chest? Oh, you mean the one that I handpainted when she was an infant in Switzerland, that served as storage for her duplo in London and her dress-up clothes in Copenhagen? The last time I remembered seeing it was in Denmark, and, even worse, had completely forgotten about it. (Upon further investigation, we located it in our garage which doubles as a storage container. The chest was wrapped in moving paper, and served as a base for a crated mirror I had also forgotten about.)

Which brings me to pizza. I decided to make pizza for dinner the other night and went to grab my pizza stone from the kitchen cupboard. Er, which kitchen cupboard? Good question. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing it anywhere in our kitchen, or for that matter ever unpacking it. I have a sinking feeling it’s buried in one of the boxes back in the garage, ubiquitously labeled “kitchen.” I’m not sure which is more embarrassing: the fact that I cannot locate my belongings, or the fact that I haven’t made my own pizza since moving to the U.S.

So, part of a cook’s skill-set is going with the flow in the kitchen. Stuff happens. The pizza dough was already made. If I couldn’t locate the pizza stone, then I would come up with another idea. So, I decided to make a skillet pizza. I stretched the dough out so that it fit in the bottom of my cast iron skillet which I had heated with a little olive oil. Once one side had browned slightly, I flipped the dough. Then I mounded the toppings on the cooked side, while the bottom continued to cook, and then quickly finished it under the oven broiler. The results were delicious. The dough was crisp and slightly charred while remaining soft in the middle. I served it on a big wooden board and used a kitchen knife to cut it into pieces. I would have used my pizza cutter, but I couldn’t find it.

Skillet Pizza with Broccoli Rabe, Sausage and Roasted Peppers

The classic Italian combination of broccoli rabe (rapini) and sausage is nicely rounded out by the sweet roasted pepper. You will need 2 skillets to prepare the pizzas at the same time, otherwise one will have to be prepared before the other.

Makes 2 10″ pizzas or 4 small pizzas

2 uncooked pizza crusts, rolled out to fit in bottom of a skillet, 1/4-1/2″ thick.

Note:
This recipe also be used for a traditional oven-baked pizza. Instead of using the skillet, bake pizza on a pizza stone or oven tray on lowest rack in a preheated 450 F. oven until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.

Stir yeast and lukewarm water together in a bowl. Add 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and semolina. Mix well. Let sit until bubbly, about 30 minutes.
Combine remaining flour and salt in another bowl. Add to yeast with cold water and olive oil. Mix well to form a dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead with hands until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (Or use a mixer with a dough hook and knead about 5 minutes.)
Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat all sides with oil. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 2 hours. Punch dough down, and let rise another 45 minutes.
Divide dough into 2 equal disks (or 4 if you would like small pizzas.) Let rest 30 minutes before shaping. Lightly flour a work surface. Using your fingers or heels of your hands, stretch the disks out to desired size.

I love broccoli rabe, and I think the idea of of cooking it in a skillet is great.
Tonight, my husband was trying to make a traditional pizza, but something went wrong with our valve for the gas, and the oven wouldn’t heat. He tried to cook in on the bbq, but when he realized that the bottom was overcooking, he grabbed a cast iron pot to put underneath. It still came out a little burned.
Any tips for making grilled pizza?